Manufacturing & The Economy

New orders for manufactured durable goods in July decreased $17.8 billion or 7.3% to $226.6 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Monday. This decrease, down following three consecutive monthly increases and followed a 3.9% June increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 0.6%. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 6.7%.

Inventories of manufactured durable goods in July, up three of the last four months, increased $1.3 billion or 0.4% to $379.1 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis, and followed a 0.2% June increase.